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Disney announced a new toy line Tuesday that turns the iPad into an interactive play mat. The new toys, called Disney Appmates, interact directly with a free app for the iPad that brings them to life.

The first toys in the Appmates series are from Pixar’s Cars. Twin packs of toy autos — each representing a character from the popular film series — will be available in stores for about $20.

In addition to the excellent video demo (above), we’ve had a chance to play with the product. Sunny Lauridsen, director of digital toys at Disney Consumer Products gave us a hands-on demo of the toys and app in action. After playing with the Appmates themselves, we were bowled over by the ingenuity — and by how fun they were.

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How it Works

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Each plastic car has specially designed capacitive sensors on the bottom. Once placed on the iPad, these sensors provide the app with information about what character the car represents (each pattern of sensors slightly different) and where it is on the screen.

The app then adjusts itself to match the position of the car and to speak and interact with the character. The voices from Cars and Cars 2 are a nice touch. Kids can freely explore the area around Radiator Springs and Route 66 during the day and at night.

In addition to a free play mode, kids can also compete in races and complete missions. This earns them coins that outfit their cars with power-ups, special tires and different kinds of fuel. The coins are virtual only — no in-app purchase or real currency exchange takes place — and Disney tells us it is still exploring how it might offer add-on levels or additional items.

I was shocked by just how well the toys work with the iPad. Fundamentally, however, the coolest part of the toys is that they assimilate so well with how kids actually play. Rather than trying to re-create a new paradigm, Disney has just given the experience a digital boost.

The big question is: Won’t the toys break the screen? In my experience, it would be difficult (though not impossible) for the toys to inflict any substantial damage to the iPad’s glass. The sensors are designed not to scratch the surface and the toys are lightweight enough that excessive pounding shouldn’t inflict much damage. Still, this is probably a good opportunity to explain to your kids how to best take care of electronics.

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Why the iPad?

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“We could have designed our own tablet — and in fact that’s something we actually considered doing,” Lauridsen says. “After the iPad was released, we looked at its success in the market — especially with families — and decided not to reinvent the wheel and instead focus on creating toys for the existing platform.” As a strategy, this makes sense. Since its release in April 2010, the iPad has proven to be as popular with kids as it is with adults.

Disney already has a successful presence on the iPhone and iPad, and the Appmates series of toys will just continue to build on that. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Steve Jobs, Apple’s chairman, is a member of the Disney board of directors and its single largest shareholder.

The initial release of the Cars Appmates app will only work with the iPad 2, because of the processor and memory requirements for the app. Future releases, however, will work with the iPad 1 as well.

Apple retail stores and Apple.com will be selling their own exclusive two-pack of Appmates in stores this October. Disney tells us that in the future, other Disney franchises will also get the Appmates treatment.

Frankly, toys like this make me wish I was a kid again.

Early Tuesday morning, pilots from All Nippon Airways pushed the power levers forward on the first Boeing 787 to enter service. Moments later, the eighth 787 off of the assembly line was rolling down the runway at Paine Field where the airplane was assembled. With a number of VIPs on board, including ANA’s CEO Shinichiro Ito, the Dreamliner departed from runway 16R and began a nine-plus hour flight to Japan.

The flight marks the end of the three days of events signaling the beginning of the Dreamliner’s entry into service. Early Sunday morning the official handover took place when Boeing received payment for Dreamliner ZA008 and ANA received the title of ownership for the first 787 to enter service. On Monday Boeing and ANA held a ceremonial event outside the factory where the 787 is assembled in a steady rain (picture above).

Despite the weather, company executives were upbeat to finally have the first 787 leaving the nest nearly two years after its first flight in December of 2009.

“It’s not often that we have the chance to make history” said Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Jim Albaugh, “to do something big and bold that will change the world in untold ways and endure long after we are gone.”

The long delay of the 787 program was alluded to by most of those who spoke at the event. All Nippon Airways’ Ito expressed his happiness at taking delivery of the company’s first 787, even if it is three years behind schedule.. He cited the company’s plan to expand beyond its native Japan where most of its routes are currently based.

“We are delighted to be taking delivery finally of our first 787″ Ito said. “The Dreamliner will enable us to offer unrivalled standards of service and comfort to our passengers and will play a key part in ANA’s plans for international expansion.”

Today’s flight marks the beginning of the Dreamliner’s entry into commercial service after many years and many billions of dollars in delays. A report by the Seattle Times estimates Boeing has spent more than $32 billion developing and building the 787 so far.

On October 26, ANA pilots will fly the airplane on an inaugural flight between Tokyo and Hong Kong. Regularly scheduled domestic service will begin on November 1. The airline will have four 787s in service by the end of the year and 12 of the Dreamliners based in Japan by early 2012.

Photo: Jason Paur/Wired.com

Mozilla’s rapid release schedule for Firefox continues with the arrival of Firefox 7 for Mac, Windows and Linux.

Firefox 7 comes less than six weeks after the release of Firefox 6. Mozilla moved to a more rapid release cycle with a more streamlined, frequent and incremental upgrade cycle a la Google’s Chrome browser, after Firefox 4 launched back in March.

As a result, most of the changes have taken place under the hood. Mozilla boasts that Firefox 7 uses less memory and performs faster.

Firefox 7 also improved its support for cutting-edge web technologies, including hardware-accelerated Canvas for HTML5 animations. That means that web apps and browser-based games should get better performance.

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Memory Improvements: Your Mileage May Vary

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The Firefox 7 team says that the latest version of the browser uses less memory, a reduction of anywhere between 20% and 50%. In a blog post at Mozilla Hacks, Firefox developer Nicholas Nethercote details the memory improvements. He says the benefits will be most noticeable for users that:

• Keep Firefox open for a long time
• Have many tabs open at once
• Use Firefox for Windows
• View pages with lots of text
• Use Firefox while also using other memory-intensive programs

In our tests, using a mid-2010 MacBook Pro with 8GB of RAM running OS X Lion, we were unable to ascertain just how much better Firefox 7 used memory as compared to Firefox 6. However, we did pit it against the most stable release of Google Chrome.

I opened up the same browser pages in Firefox 7 and in Chrome. They included Mashable, Variety.com, Google+, Facebook, Mashable‘s backend website and Hulu.com. On Hulu, I played a video in high definition.

To take Flash out of the equation, I then removed the Hulu tab from both browsers. These are the results.

As you can see, the main Firefox app uses the same amount of memory in both tests. The “plugin-container” process is actually what Firefox uses to sandbox some plugins, like Flash, so that even if that process crashes, the rest of the app stays in place.

Mozilla’s tests indicate that peak memory usage for Firefox 7 is lower than its predecessors and that sustained usage is more consistent. We haven’t had enough time to test whether memory usage continues to increase the more time a tab or window is left open, but we’ll assume this is true.

For Mac users, Firefox 7 is still no match for Google Chrome, at least when it comes to memory usage. To be fair, Apple’s own browser, Safari, has memory performance issues with OS X Lion, and Firefox 7 could perform better in Mac OS X 10.6 or earlier. Firefox has historically had better Windows performance, especially when it comes to memory usage, and we expect those are the users that will really see the benefits.

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Is the Rapid Update Cycle Working?

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I’m conflicted about Mozilla’s rapid-release approach to Firefox. As nice as it is not to have to go months or years between major updates — especially when it comes to support for newer HTML5 and JavaScript technologies — I have to wonder if this process isn’t too rapid.

Because Firefox has historically been such a version-number driven product, users are conditioned to expect major feature improvements every time a release is introduced. On the flip-side, Google doesn’t make a big deal about the version numbers of its Chrome browser. Users just know it as Chrome.

Part of the reason that a rapid update cycle works for Google Chrome is that the updates take place completely in the background. Because of how Chrome plugins are designed, most will continue to work with new versions. Firefox has a much larger and more complex add-on environment and as a result, there will always be add-ons that are incompatible with the latest release.

While I firmly believe that the move to more rapid, consistent improvements is good for the browser ecosystem as a whole, I’m not convinced that the Firefox team has figured out the best way to alert users about updates or that that the messaging behind how these updates work is on target.

What do you think of Firefox 7? Let us know in the comments.

After hitting a top speed of 56.535 mph, John Petsche broke the land speed record for 350 cc alt-fuel motorcycles.

It may seem quaint that there are vehicle classes where the land speed record can be broken with a run slower than most interstate speed limits, but for Petsche, the exhilaration came from building the bike in the first place.

“Alternate Fuel vehicles do not have to be overly complicated and expensive,” he said. “There should be more emphasis on cheap, simple, and reliable vehicles built with proven components that have been optimized for fuel efficiency.”

Petsche certainly applied his credo of simplicity to the bike he built, the first to ever race in the 350 cc, unstreamlined alt-fuel class at Maine’s Loring Timing Association. He started with a Kawasaki bike, and with some help from online user groups he modified it to run off a six horsepower industrial diesel engine that he powered with vegetable oil.

“For the average person looking to build a homemade project, a biofuel-powered diesel motorcycle is the best bet,” Petsche said. “Heavy batteries and limited range are not an issue, donor parts are cheap and widely available, and there is a huge support network of people who have already completed projects of their own.”

That said, electric bikes easily triple Petsche’s top speed. The land speed record for an e-bike stands at 216 mph, and several teams are looking to top 367 mph — the top speed that any motorcycle has ever hit. The fastest biodiesel bike on record is a modified BMW R 1150 RT known as Die Moto, and it only went 113 mph.

For Petsche, it’s not so much about speed. He had so much fun building his first bike that he’s already at work on another. With a CVT and a 10 horsepower engine, he’s making a run for a record in the 500 cc alt-fuel class. Best of all, it’ll break the speed limit. “It should be able to reach at least 75 to 80 mph,” he said.

Photos: John Petsche

When someone talks to you about their goals, about whether or not they’re trying to earn a lot of money or make a difference or stand out or fit in, it’s so easy to assume that they have the same worldview and goals as you do, but that they’re lying about it. We assume that if our narrative is, “I do this for the money,” that when someone says, “I do this for love,” we think they’re actually lying. If you believe, “acceptance is everything,” then when someone tells you that he’s more focused on standing out, you think they they’re standing out as a way of being accepted. We assume that if someone says they believe in faeries or Norse gods, we know that they don’t, not really. Everyone, apparently, is just like us, but lying about it.

Everyone’s internal monologue is unique. It changes by culture, by age and by individual. While it’s easy to be suspicious of someone who claims to have a different worldview than you do, it’s almost certain that they’re sincere. Start with that sincerity and work from there.

Nellie Akalp is CEO of CorpNet.com. Since forming more than 100,000 corporations and LLCs across the U.S, she has built a strong passion to assist small business owners and entrepreneurs in starting and protecting their business the right way. To learn more about Nellie and see how she can help your business get off the ground quickly, visit here or “Like” CorpNet.com on Facebook.

The U.S. economy has been on shaky ground for several years. Whether it’s news from Greece or Capitol Hill, it doesn’t take much to send serious shock waves throughout Wall Street, and ultimately down to Main Street. People are nervous, and for the American worker, that means staying with a stable job until the economy turns around.

According to the Bureau of National Affairs, only 0.5% of the American workforce voluntarily left their jobs in 2009. In 2010 and Q1 2011 it rose to 0.7% (for context, the reported voluntary turnover rate was 1.1% each year from 2005 to 2007). When approximately 14 million Americans are looking for work, many consider themselves lucky to be bringing home a paycheck at all. In a world full of uncertainty and delicate economies, it’s easy to see why people want to play it safe.

But just how many brilliant entrepreneurs are waiting on the sidelines for the market to come around? After all, how logical is it to jump ship when the economic picture remains precarious? According to a recent study by business consultancy MBO Partners, approximately 14% of employees hope to go independent in the next two years by starting their own business or freelancing.

Many employers have been coping with the economic downturn by cutting salaries and bonuses and reducing the number of new hires. This leads to anxious, demoralized and overworked employees on the lookout for something better. Some employees will remedy this by starting their own business.

Do you have dreams to start your own business, but aren’t quite sure if this is the right time? If so, here are a few things to think about.

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Funding in This Economy

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If you’re involved in the tech/social scene, there’s good news that some venture capital opportunities are returning. However, traditional bank funding for Main Street businesses is still tight. As part of the American Jobs Act, President Obama plans to ask the SEC for ways to reduce the “regulatory burdens on small business capital formation,” perhaps via crowdfunding and mini-offerings.

What this means is that many aspiring business owners will need to start small and self-finance. After all, it’s more than possible to start a successful business with just a small investment. Keep in mind, however, that only you and your family can truly assess how much risk is appropriate, and for how long you can forgo a salary.

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Market Opportunities in This Economy

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As a result of this recession/recovery, businesses everywhere are looking for ways to cut costs and be more efficient. While the idea of leaner operations doesn’t translate positively for the majority of the American workforce, it can be advantageous for some enterprising small businesses. For instance, if your business idea can help companies reduce costs or increase productivity, look forward to a receptive audience. This is particularly true for freelancers and contract professionals and developers of collaboration tools and other “streamlining” technology.

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The Advantage of Starting When the Economy Is Down

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It may seem counter-intuitive, but many experts think an economic downtime is the perfect time to start a business. If you wait for the economy to be in full swing, you’ll be too late.

Right now real estate prices and low interest rates are attractive. You have an opportunity to get the wheels in motion now, so that your product or service/business are ready to take advantage of a return in consumer confidence.

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Be Honest About Your Motivation

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Sit down and ask yourself, “Do I really want this business, or am I just trying to escape something else?” If you’re truly passionate about your business idea, get a move on. But workplace disillusion is not a good enough reason to become an entrepreneur. Starting a business takes tremendous sacrifice and hard work; you’ve got to love what you’re doing to keep at it.

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Starting a business in a down economy can be a scary endeavor, but isn’t the idea of abandoning your dreams even more terrifying? No one can advise you whether starting a business is right for you, or whether the timing is right, but sometimes a challenge can be an opportunity in disguise.

Image courtesy of Flickr, timsnell